B2B growth and sales · Qualitative multiple-case study
Buying centers and emerging developments: the SME perspective
Silvio Cardinali, Piyush Sharma, Elena Cedrola, Marta Giovannetti, Kishore Gopalakrishna Pillai (2024). Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.
Plain-English take
Collaboration and exchange among buying-center members are more effective than competition/power struggles. Virtual/hybrid relations require greater intra-group cooperation; diverse backgrounds and collaboration support flexibility and performance. Technology increases certainty and automation but can create overload and biases, requiring analytical ability and clear decision responsibility. For a founder, use this as a question to test in your own context, not a universal playbook.
How much weight to give this
2.5/5 Exploratory evidence; interpret cautiously
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
The described design supports the question, but it does not establish causal effects beyond the reported setting.
The accessible source does not report a usable sample size.
The comparison structure is limited or depends on the paper's model/context.
Only publisher abstract/metadata was retrieved; full methods and robustness could not be checked.
Double-blind? Blinding was not established from the captured source; it may not apply to this study design.
Research question
What the authors investigated
How do emerging developments, including virtual/hybrid relations and technology, shape interactions, flexibility, and performance in SME buying centers?
Design
Qualitative multiple-case research of manufacturing SMEs; five Italian companies were selected to represent diverse stakeholder characteristics, practices, and policies, with selection continuing until issue saturation.
Sample and setting
Five Italian manufacturing companies/SMEs and their buying-center stakeholders.
Reported result
What the study found
Collaboration and exchange among buying-center members are more effective than competition/power struggles. Virtual/hybrid relations require greater intra-group cooperation; diverse backgrounds and collaboration support flexibility and performance. Technology increases certainty and automation but can create overload and biases, requiring analytical ability and clear decision responsibility.
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
Only five Italian companies were studied. The authors call for research in other countries with different cultural and socioeconomic conditions and using other methods.
Possible founder application
Treat this as evidence for the specific b2b growth and sales question studied. Compare the setting and sample to your company before changing a growth decision; use a local experiment where the paper does not match your context.
Evidence access
Publisher abstract/metadata retrieved; full text not reviewed
Direct publisher record verifies exact title, authors, DOI, journal, year/pages, qualitative design, five-company setting, findings, and explicit limitations; the article is marked available to purchase, so this is abstract-level evidence rather than verified full text. Correction notices were not separately verified in this collection; consult the current publisher record before applying the findings.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.